Man sentenced to 55 years for 2023 murder of Chicago Police Officer Aréanah Preston

A man was sentenced to 55 years in prison Thursday after he pleaded guilty to the 2023 murder of off-duty Chicago Police Officer Aréanah Preson in Avalon Park.

Joseph Brooks, 22, pleaded guilty to one county of felony first-degree murder, court records show.

Brooks and three others were charged with first-degree murder in May 2023, less than a week after Preston was fatally shot in an attempted robbery near her home. She was off duty but still in her police uniform.

Trevell Breeland, Jakwon Buchanan and Jaylan Frazier’s cases are still pending.

Preston, 24, had worked for the police department for three years and most recently had been assigned to the Calumet District. At the time of the shooting, she was preparing for her graduation from Loyola University Chicago with a master’s degree in jurisprudence.

After her death, her dad told the Chicago Sun-Times that his daughter was “trying to make a change on this earth.”

Prosecutors said the shooting took place after a long, violent robbery spree that began after Buchanan’s girlfriend told him “she needed money for a barbecue.”

Brooks told detectives he shot Preston when he saw her reaching for her gun, prosecutors said in 2023.